Sirius's Sister
by ienjoybooks
Summary: Harry stumbles upon a pensieve in Grimmuald Place, what he sees will shock him. What kind of pain has Sirius been hiding?


It was winter break and Grimmauld place was exceptionally quiet. Supper had just finished and all of the occupants were busy relaxing either in the kitchen or the den. Harry, however, had become restless and decided to walk around the house to do a little exploring. He had been in very few rooms in the house, and not that he wanted to go snooping, he was very curious about what lurked behind some of the closed doors on the second floor. He walked up the stairs quietly trying not to draw attention to himself, because he sort of wanted to be alone to explore, he needed to clear his thoughts. As he walked down the long hallway of the second floor he noticed something curious. A door at the end of the hall that had always been shut was open, and a light was on. He walked toward the door and listened quietly, he didn't hear anything, so he decided to open the door and see what was inside this mysterious room. As he pushed the door back he was greeted by a rather plain looking room, it was filled with cabinets full of small vials each labeled with words Harry couldn't read at this distance. This room wouldn't have been particularly interesting if it weren't for something that was set in the middle of the room. Harry recognized this strange basin as a pensive, a place to explore memories. Harry walked to the pensive to see the familiar silver of a swirling memory on the inside. Not being able to contain his curiosity, he plunged his face into the basin and suddenly he was falling.

He landed into the den at 12 Grimmuald Place except it seemed a little better kept and now there were no Order Members in there talking and relaxing. There were only two children, who couldn't be older than four or five years old sitting on a couch. There was a little girl with long dark black hair, and a little boy with a face familiar to Harry and after a moment of thinking he realized he was looking at a young Sirius Black. He watched as the memory began to unfold before him.

_The children were talking excitedly about something and the little girl had begun to howl with laughter, and she ran away from Sirius screaming as he tried to tickle her. They played, and he could vaguely hear his father telling them to settle down and for the girl to stop screaming. They stopped for a moment, but being only four they had started back up again and now the little girl was screaming and laughing louder than ever. That is when a man, who bore an uncanny resemblance to present day Sirius, emerged in the doorway. Sirius and the little girl freeze because they knew they were in trouble. _

"_I told you to stop screaming, Cassiopeia," the man said, his icy-cold voice was enough to send chills down your spine._

_The little girl named Cassiopeia was looking down at her shoes trying not to look at her father who had now taken a few steps into the room. She looked absolutely terrified._

"_Cassiopeia, come here, and look at me," said the man; his voice was as icy as ever. Reluctantly Cassiopeia stood and lifted her head to look at her father and walked over to him, knowing that if she disobeyed, the consequences would be much worse. _

_Sirius's father looked down at Cassiopeia with little emotion before he spoke. _

"_I told you to stop screaming, Cassiopeia. There is no need to scream in this household," he said as he grabbed the little girls arm roughly dragging her to the middle of the room. "The only time you will scream in this house is when I give you a reason to!" he shouted as he shoved the little girl to the ground. She landed on her wrist with a nauseating crack "I'm going to give you a reason to scream," and as he said that he pointed his wand to the little girl and said, "Crucio!"_

_The little girl began to scream and writhe in pain. The screams were bloodcurdling, spine tingling, and bone chilling. Her small frame convulsed and contorted as she screamed._

_He had stopped the curse when he yelled, "You like screaming, correct? Well you need to get it out of your system now!" He pointed his wand at the little girl once more, saying, "Crucio!"_

_The little girl began to writhe again, screaming and crying and the father looked on mercilessly as he tortured the little girl for over five minutes. After about two minutes of being cursed the little girl begged, "Please Papa! I'll be good, I swear!" but he continued. When her pleas with her father fell short she began to shout, "Sirius! Sirius!" Her body was still contorted and convulsing._

_Sirius sat, cowering on the couch; he looked as if he was struggling to keep himself from crying, his eyes were filled with unimaginable terror._

_Sirius's father had stopped the curse once more and the little girl lie in a crumpled heap on her side crying in pain and terror. Her father walked up to her once more and kicked her hard in the shoulder, making her sprawl out on her back, there was another sickening crack of bone. She cried harder still and he pointed his wand at her once more, "I think one more time ought to keep you from screaming anymore… Crucio!"_

_He muttered the same incantation as the last two times but this time, something had gone wrong, horribly wrong. He had aimed for the girl's stomach but had instead caught her straight in the chest. She now screamed harder than ever, it sounded as though she was being murdered and as she screamed she began coughing. As she coughed blood was spattering onto the floor and before her father could even stop the curse, she had gone unconscious. _

_Her father went to examine the girls limp frame he still continued to show no emotion. Sirius began to cry now. "Cassie! Cassie!" he shouted as her father whisked her out of room. _

Harry could feel himself being pulled back to present day and as he reentered the room where the pensive was stored he found himself on his hands and knees, vomiting. What he had seen had made him physically ill. As he emptied the contents of his stomach he could feel a hand rubbing circles on his back and when he looked up he was greeted by Sirius's face, his expression was solemn. "Get it all out," said Sirius soothingly. "I was there and sometimes I still feel like throwing up just thinking about it." As Harry's stomach settled he look up at Sirius questioningly, "What was that? What did I just see?" Sirius sat back on the floor looking at Harry grimly, "You just saw the Black family's definition of discipline." Harry was in disbelief, how could they use the cruciatis curse on such a small child? "Who was she? How old was she?" Harry asked finally after a moment. Sirius's expression was now one of intense sadness like Harry had never seen on Sirius's face before. Sirius thought for a moment before looking up at Harry and speaking, "She was my little sister, Cassiopeia. We were twins actually, but I was born first, we were four at the time of the memory. I called her Cassie…" his voice trailed off as he drifted off deep into thought. He was only brought back by Harry's next question. "Did he… did he… kill her?" Sirius shook his head, "No, he didn't kill her, but she was never the same person after that day. What happened at the end was that he had hit her straight in the heart, and the curse had permanently poisoned her bloodstream. They were able to get her to wake back up but she suffered horrible pain due to the poison in her blood, which she could only control with a very powerful potion…" he paused for a moment as he seemed to be trying to gain his composure. "She never spoke much after that. We were very close, me and Cassie and the only person she ever spoke to was me, and she was very quiet even when we talked late at night. After a while I was the only person that could get her to speak, that is until we went to school. She too was in Gryffindor and since she was a girl and I was a boy we had to sleep in different rooms for the first time in our entire lives. She managed to make one friend with which she felt comfortable talking with; your mother, Lily. Outside of me, your mum was the only other person my sister trusted after that." Sirius smiled a little as he mentioned the part about Harry's mother. "What happened to Cassie? If you don't mind me asking…" said Harry trying to sound as sympathetic as he can. "Well," started Sirius, tears had begun to well in his eyes. "The poison did take its toll, the poison wasn't lethal but it caused extreme pain. After a while potions couldn't even control her pain, and she eventually ended up being bedridden for the last three months of her life. I nursed her day and night, with your dad's mother and your mother's help, as the poison tortured her. She died the summer before our seventh year at school; committed suicide by drinking a whole bottle of a pain reliever potion. It was awful to find her lying there foaming at the mouth completely motionless… Honestly I was just glad that she was finally not lying in my arms whimpering and moaning in pain anymore, but that she was lying in my arms looking more peaceful than I had seen her since before that day in the den." Sirius had begun to cry as he continued with the story, "I miss her everyday. She was the only person who could understand my troubles on a personal level and I truly miss having her around. With that said, I am glad she is no longer suffering." Sirius stopped for a minute as Harry put his arm around Sirius's shoulder. "You know something though, Harry? I figure it was a wonderful reunion when your mother died. Cassie adored Lily and I know that she was there waiting on her, and that together, with your dad of course, they are all patiently waiting for the day that we will join them."


End file.
